Conversational commerce takes many forms – from chatbots that provide product recommendations to ordering through home voice assistants. At the end of the day, it all comes down to convenience, personalization, and being with your customers.
It is quite an established fact that consumers can interact with brands and shop through messaging apps, live chat or chatbots, and voice technology with conversational commerce. Consumers can use chat to get customer service and product information, but they can also make purchases through these channels. It gives eCommerce businesses a one-to-one sales channel and consumers the kind of personalized service they expect from brands today.
Conversational commerce can help you improve your customer experience, increase online sales, and improve how customers interact with your company throughout the purchasing process.
To get you started, here are a few ways your eCommerce business can use conversational commerce:
Live Chat
Live chat is the preferred customer service contact option for shoppers aged 18 to 49 and is a popular alternative to phone or email conversations. Unlike a chatbot, live chat allows your customers to interact with a real person (such as one of your
sales associates or customer service reps).
Customers can use live chat to ask questions about your products or services or to get help with an order they’ve already placed. Because of its immediacy and personalized approach, live chat is a powerful conversion tool—installing a live chat app on your website can increase conversion rates by up to 4%.
SMS Marketing/ Integrated Messaging Apps
Allowing consumers to interact with your brand via messaging apps allows you to easily connect with your target audience.
There are numerous instant messaging apps available, but it is not always possible to incorporate all of them into your channel mix. So, consider which channels and messaging apps are best for your company. Where does your target demographic spend their time?
Messaging apps help create a private line between your company and a potential customer, making them ideal for providing customer support, product recommendations, and cross-selling or up-selling items.
Chatbots
Chatbots are exactly what they sound like: automated chat prompts designed to assist you in finding the information you seek. Most chatbots begin with a greeting and then present a customer with a few different flow options.
Chatbots have a significant advantage over live chat in that they do not necessitate as much dedicated personnel. You can publish your bot to your eCom site for customers to interact with once you’ve written and designed your ideal chat flow. By 2023, chatbot eCommerce conversions are expected to reach $112 billion.
Signing off
These are just a few examples of conversational commerce. Customers nowadays have higher expectations, and conversational commerce can help you meet them wherever they are. Your company should have adaptable, powerful tools to meet the changing needs of your customers and the retail landscape.